Monday, February 21, 2011

I've never done Formspring, but the concept intrigues me, or maybe I'm just inspired by TopHat at The Bee in Your Bonnet's Inquisition Monday. I also regularly get questions now from readers about all sorts of parenting and blogging topics, which has given me a chance to put on my Dear Abby hat.

So, I thought, it would be fun (would it?) to put a general request out there:

Submit your questions, small or large!

And then I will choose some to answer in an upcoming blog post or posts.

Here are some overarching topics for you to consider, though you're free to roam outside them:

Personal stuff

Have you been dying to know something about my life? I know, I'm a fascination of enigmatic mystery. Or not so much. Still, feel free to indulge your curiosity.

Natural parenting

Do you need parenting advice? Or want to question mine?

Parenting products

Do you need my opinion on a certain item? I could answer such questions on Hobo Mama Reviews.

Bloggity-blogging

Do you want to know something about the blogging process or about writing in general? Or do you have a technical question about blog platforms (Blogger especially but WordPress as well), monetizing, and techie things? I could answer such questions on LaurenWayne.com.

Here are some question-asking guidelines, for my benefit as much as yours:

You can submit questions in any of these ways:

Email me: mail {at} hobomama.com. Please put "Question for Ask Me Anything" in the subject so I know it's related to this post.

ETA: You could also ask on Twitter or Facebook, if that's where you happen to be.

You can submit as many questions as you'd like.

I don't promise to answer every question. I get to pick and choose.

If you submit a question where further input would be relevant and helpful, I get to repost it on, say, my Facebook page or similar, or email it to trusted advisers. I will share it anonymously unless you wish otherwise.

I will ignore anyone who's just being mean. I know the mean people won't be reading this note, but I wanted to put it out there. Mean, anonymous people bug me.

Speaking of anonymous, if you want to submit a question anonymously, you have two options:

Submit it to me by email with your name attached but request that I post about it anonymously.

Submit it as an anonymous commenter on this post (log out of your Google account and select "Anonymous" as your identity when commenting) or through my contact form using a fake or unidentified email address. I won't try to track you down.

As I've mentioned, I will be posting the answers to (some of) the questions publicly on my blog(s). If you don't have a linked blog, I plan to use your first name and last initial to identify the question-asker unless requested otherwise (e.g., "Lauren W. asked…"). If you want me to use a pseudonym or keep your identity private, please let me know when you ask the question. If the question comes from a comment, I'll use whatever name you've used for commenting (such as your Blogger profile name or a name you enter; e.g., "Hobo Mama asked…"). If you have a blog that you've linked to in your profile or in your email, I'll link your first name to your blog (e.g., "Lauren at Hobo Mama asked…"). Again, if this would bother you, please request otherwise. And if all that was too confusing, just let me know clearly how you wish to be identified.

I don't at all promise to be prompt about posting responses. If this is an urgent question that only I can answer, please email me about it in a normal fashion and tell me I should really answer you soon already. (I'm very bad about email.) If it's an urgent question that any group of wise people could help you with, I'd recommend the Natural Parents Network Facebook wall — you're sure to get a flurry of responses within a few hours of having your question reposted by our Facebook moderator — or the NPN forums. If this is a medical emergency, why are you reading a goofy blog post? Go call an ambulance, silly.

All right, (I hope) this is fun! I look forward to seeing what you've got to ask. Fire away!

6
comments:

Here's a random question: do you have any tips for someone who is considering using wordpress to publish an online version of a student newspaper? My brother advises the journalism class at the tiny private school he serves, and is just starting to look into a content management system to support an online version -- we're sort of thinking that a blog platform might be the most straightforward way to go. He's got considerable experience with blogger, but is interested something with more layout flexibility.

As soon as he asked my opinion, it popped into my mind that you might have some useful insights, but I wasn't going to bother you with such an obscure query. Since you're soliciting questions, though...

i was just wondering how you decided to proceed with cloth diapering this time around. i know you were torn between diaper service or diy. if you're going to do your own and build a stash, what sort of stash do you plan on having?

(i've got this on the brain because i just walked down to put some diapers in the wash!)

Yes, yes, yes - I have one! I remember you mentioning, ages back, that your love language was Actions and Sam's was Words Of Affirmation. I would *love* a post from you discussing how you handle these differences - both you as an individual and you as a couple. The reason I ask, apart from it being an interesting topic anyway, is that my husband and I are the other way round, and I'd really be interested to learn more about how the situation looks from a viewpoint equivalent to his. I do hope you post about this!

Much more minor question: How did you choose your son's name, and have you any ideas on names for the upcoming child? I love hearing how people choose names...

I have a blogging question. I have a Blogger hosted .blogspot.com URL for my blog. I've toyed with the idea of changing my URL (and just having a myurl.com) for some time, mostly to better reflect where I am in life right now. What's the easiest way to do this? Will Blogger redirect from my old URL? Is it better to export the old blog to a new one, or is there a way to just change the URL of the current blog?

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Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and our hobo kids, Mikko Lint Picker (born June 2007), Alrik Irontrousers (born May 2011), and Karsten (born October 2014). Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.